Together For Two Years
by percabethanpuckabrinaforevs
Summary: Blossom and Dexter had been going out for quite some time now, and then abruptly, it came to a stop. So our redheaded heroine finds herself, after leading a life of prohibition, taking a taste of some very strong alcohol. What happens when her previous ex runs into her at the bar, drunk as the devil? Will some old mysteries and feelings resurface?


**I probably should really be updating my other stories. I really should. Really. I mean it... *brilliant inspiration takes control* Disclaimer: I do not own PPG, or RRB.**

She had never thought this day would come. And yet, here she was. Blossom Utonium, the smart one, the sensible one, the one that thought with her brain, not her fists or heart, was sitting in a bar.

It was tightly packed, and Blossom was beginning to regret her decision. However, something held her back from staying. She hadn't gotten anything to drink yet, simply sitting there and staring sadly at other couples who were passing by.

After a few more minutes of self-pity, she ordered a drink.

The bartender asked her which one she wanted. She answered that she didn't care. He came back with a drink, and she had no idea what it was.

As she sipped it, something caught her eye. She turned around, but no one was there. She sighed; she was probably imagining things now. It had been earlier that day, but her heart still contracted as though he had been screaming at her only moments before.

**Flashback begins**

_ Blossom had been at the nearly empty restaurant for almost an hour before he finally arrived._

_ "Dexter!" She stood up and flashed a pearly white smile at him, which he half-heartedly returned._

_ "Hey, Blossom."He smiled at her again, and although Blossom waved it off as imagination, she could swear she saw regret and deep sorrow in his eyes._

_ "What's the matter, honey? I know something's up." Blossom began, even before they sat down. She had always relied on their boyfriend /girlfriend relationship to be completely honest with each other._

_ "Oh, it's nothing." Dexter waved it off._

_ "Well, honey, you know I'm here for you if you ever need it." Blossom tilted her head and smiled warmly at her boyfriend._

_ "Of course, Blossy." _

_ Almost without thinking about it, Blossom flinched. _

_ Dexter stared at her accusingly. _

_ "I'm sorry, Dexter." Blossom shifted in her seat uncomfortably._

_ "You still do that. You say that you're over him, Blossom. You say that you're over him. But every time that I call you by the pet name he used to call you, every time I so much as wear the color red, you go all quiet, and sad, and reflecting on me." Dexter glared at her._

_ "I know! I'm so sorry, Dexter. It's just, I mean..."_

_ "Yes, I know exactly what you mean. You were never the girl who could be satisfied, Blossom. You couldn't simply be one of the hottest girls in school, you had to be the valedictorian, too, and one of the nicest, always giving up your time to go help someone or somebody in need. You always had to be perfect. And then you decided that wasn't enough, either. You had to get the coolest, hottest, meanest boy in school, too. Had to go to prom with him! He dated you for almost _two whole years_, Blossom, and then he threw you out like you were yesterday's old trash. And that's when you came running to me. You knew that you had to be satisfied, and yet you couldn't be! You weren't-and aren't-over him yet! And I'm not going to the sweet boyfriend who you're only here for about half the time, because for the rest of it you're thinking about him! Look, we're over, okay? I already found myself a new, better girlfriend than you. It's over!" Somewhere through his rant, Dexter had started yelling._

_ After he had broken up with her, he had thrown some money on the table for the food and taken off, leaving a shocked and dazed Blossom in his midst._

**Flashback ends**

She couldn't say that Dexter had been wrong. She knew that he had always been there for her, less than she had for him, but what truly hurt her inside was that Dexter had found himself a different girlfriend _while they were dating_. She couldn't believe that he would do that. But she had to. Because he did.

With a moan, Blossom realized that she had finished her drink-whatever it was. The room seemed to be spinning, and her head was pounding real badly.

How was she going to get home?

"Blossom?" A deep, steady voice asked in disbelief behind her. She didn't want to turn around. She prayed that he wouldn't be standing there. But she knew it was him. Of course it was him. They had been dating for two years. His voice was nearly imprinted in her brain. She turned around in her chair slowly.

"Brick." But her voice came out slurred, so it sounded more like, "Buicksh."

"What are you doing here?" He asked, staring at her. "You don't drink."

"I do now." She held up her glass, trying to go for nonchalance. It was totally normal to see your ex in the bar that you were trying to escape your relationship troubles, all the while knowing that you've never drank alcohol in your life.

Unfortunately, it didn't work, since her hand was shaking. Shaking real bad.

"What did you drink?" Brick asked, taking the glass and calmly setting it down on the table.

Blossom shrugged, and then grabbed the table, trying not to get dizzy.

"Blossom, you're totally drunk!" Brick sounded exasperated. "Hey, man, what did you give her?"

Blossom didn't hear the bartender's answer, but suddenly she was very aware of Brick's hand, clenched in a tight fist. "She's never drank in her entire life, and you give her _that_ as her first drink?"

By this time, Blossom's entire world was starting to go dark. She heard the bartender come closer this time.

"Why do you care what I give her? You two broke up a long time ago, didn't you?"

"Yes, but that was because of...complications." Brick snapped. "Oh, whatever, you're right."

He turned back to her. "Blossom, where's your purse?"

Slowly, she handed it to him.

He dug around, until he at last unearthed a twenty. He handed it to the bartender, and then looked back inside her purse again. His eyes softened slightly as he looked at the purse, and the back to the slowly-losing-consciousness Blossom in front of him.

"Let's get you back home." He told her softly. He wrapped his arms around her, and she melted into him, despite any inhibitions still left in her mind. She shouldn't be doing this. She shouldn't let him. But she said nothing as he lifted her up and carried her out to his car, the gentlest thing he'd done to her since their break up two years ago.

When Blossom woke up next, she was wrapped up in a bunch of blankets, in a bed. Her head was pounding, but she managed to realize where she was. She was in Brick's bedroom. She had been here countless of times, for everything from countless make out sessions to pulling him out of bed on days when they had tests.

Her hand fluttered to her hand and she groaned. Somebody cracked the door open, and Blossom glanced up to see Butch looking at her sympathetically.

He crossed over and helped her sit up. Both of the Rowdyruff boys had gotten much kinder to Blossom since Brick had begun dating her, and neither of them had returned to their usual angry fights when Brick had broken up with her, although she had expected it.

He clicked his tongue and put a hand to her forehead. "At least you don't have a fever. Honestly, Blossom, what were thinking when you went to that bar last night? You've never had a sip of alcohol in your life!"

"It didn't taste that bad." Blossom shot back, although inwardly, she shuddered when she thought of the horrible tasting poison that she had forced down her throat in an effort to forget about Dexter. Dexter... her mind wandered back to him. Where was he right now? What was he doing? Did he regret breaking up with her?

"Blossom? Did you hear me?" Butch snapped his fingers in front of her eyes.

"Oh! What? Sorry, I was spacing." Blossom admitted sheepishly.

Butch rolled his eyes, used to Blossom's little quirks from all the times that she had spent over. "I said, Brick's gone to get you some medicine to help with your hangover, that you obviously have-and don't you dare try to deny it, Ice Princess, I saw you touch your head and groan. You obviously have a headache. That's part of a hangover."

"Where's Boomer?" She asked curiously, avoiding Brick's name all she could until she inevitably actually had to see him.

"He's going to go let your dad and sisters know that you're safe and no one hurt you and you're totally fine, blah blah blah."

Blossom rolled her eyes, and then winced again.

"Butch, I'm home!" Brick yelled from somewhere, probably the kitchen. Blossom could hear running water.

"You're sleeping Beauty has awakened." Butch called back, smirking slightly at Blossom's freaked out expression. She knew she would have to face her ex, and the fact that he'd helped her, and she wouldn't be drunk this time to blame all the stuttering and nerves on.

Butch ruffled her hair before winking at her. "Don't let him scare you too much, Ice Princess. I know there's some of that stubbornness is still in you."

"Blossy?" Brick entered the room slowly, as though he was entering a weapons room, and the slightest misstep could set everything off.

Even though they had broken up, the sound of his nickname for her practically rolled off of his tongue, as though he'd said it every day.

He came a little closer, and handed her a glass of water. Butch excused himself, and shut the door, so it was just the two of them. Together. Alone.

"How are you feeling?" Brick asked cautiously, after Blossom took the pill that he had gotten for her.

Blossom shrugged. "At least the world stopped spinning."

Brick gave her a half smile, unsure if she was joking or not. Dang. When had he become so unsure of himself around her? He had always been so smug, so confident. Now, why was all of that shaken when he looked at his ex-girlfriend, who was having probably a horrible hangover, and- he didn't want to even admit the truth to himself. The truth was, he had treated her like garbage. He had thrown her out and stomped all over her dreams and her heart. And she could never know why. Otherwise, everything that he had worked so hard to build would fall apart.

"Brick." Blossom said the name so quietly, Brick wasn't even sure if he had heard it or not. But what really hurt him was the way she sounded. She sounded so hurt, and it made him die a little more than he already was every day inside.

He was by her side in an instant. "Is everything okay? Do you need something?"

She struggled to turn, but she managed until she was looking him right in the eyes. "I need answers."

Brick sagged slightly. "I don't know how much I can give."

Blossom looked at him. It was his weakness, something he had learned within the first month of dating her. If she just looked at him-not judging, not worrying, not stressing-but just looked at him, with her big, sincere eyes, like windows to how much she truly cared about him, he could refuse her nothing.

"What do you want to know?" He cursed himself. His voice sounded so uneven, so cracked, so...so _broken_.

"Why?" Her voice sounded pitifully small, and Brick couldn't stand it anymore. "Why did you help me?"

He gasped, jerking back from how close the two had unconsciously drawn together.

"Because..." His voice betrayed him, cracking in emotion. "Because, Blossom, I love you."

"Then why did you break up with me?" Blossom whispered.

"To protect you." Brick shook his head. He shouldn't be telling her this. "Princess Morbucks. She's had her eyes on me for a long time. She told me that if I didn't break up with you, break your heart, and start going out with her, then she'd find a way to hurt you herself. And it would be horrible. She was going to _break_ you, Blossy. Really break you. Her father had let her use her allowance to do _experiments..._" His voice left him for a minute as he remembered the terrible, horrific things that he had seen, the torture chambers for chemical X infused gases, that Princess Morbucks had let him see to let him know that she was serious.

"At first...at first I thought that she was just kidding. But then I saw the way she looked at you, like the way a hunter smiles just before he's about to kill a deer. That was when I realized that she was truly a maniac. I couldn't let her get to you. So I ended it, before you got even more hurt than I could hurt you. I didn't mean it, Blossy. Not at all. And every day after that night, it was just like a piece of me died every time I woke up in the morning, every time I saw you with Dexter, every time I saw you alone. I could barely hold it into place. Even my brothers were disgusted with me. They loved you almost as much as I did, as brothers, of course. You were like this bright spot in our lives, in all the hazy darkness. You were the reason Boomer got dressed and went to school each day. You were the reason Butch didn't beat up every single kid that walked by him. And you were the reason I...I...I believed in love."

After Brick's confession, Blossom stared at him, silent.

"I...I love you, too." She whispered. "I never stopped. I never got over you."

He took his hand, and held it out her. Firmly, she gripped it in her own.

"We'll beat Princess. Together." She whispered.

Brick beamed at her and nodded. He leaned closer and planted a small kiss on her forehead.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Brick made sure that Blossom was situated before calling for whomever it was to come in.

Butch entered, holding a bowl filled with green liquid. "Um, Brick? Yeah, there was this kitchen malfunction..."

Blossom snickered loudly, and Butch made a face at her.

Brick got up to help. "Will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine." Blossom answered, snuggling down in the blankets.

Brick stepped outside into the kitchen, where Buttercup, Boomer, and Bubbles were waiting for him.

"I'm not even going to get into the whole argument, because I know you four were eavesdropping the whole time." Brick sighed. "There's no kitchen malfunction either, right?"

"Right." Bubbles blushed slightly.

"Just one question." Buttercup stated.

"Shoot." Brick collapsed onto a chair around the dining table.

"How did you know that Blossom didn't, you know, hate you after the whole break up thing? I mean, if she hated you, you obviously wouldn't have brought her here to take care of her." Buttercup pointed out.

"I wasn't sure at first, considering she as drunk as the devil, so I wouldn't be able to get a straight answer out of her, but when I got her purse to pay for her, I was rummaging around, and I found a picture of the two of us, on prom night, neatly folded in the front pocket of her wallet. Why would she keep the picture in her wallet, if she didn't at least kind of have lingering feelings?" Brick shrugged slightly.

"So you took a gamble." Boomer said.

"Pretty much." Brick smiled a little bit.

"I wonder why she was out drinking in the first place." Butch mused.

"Dexter broke up with her." Brick answered immediately.

"She told you that?" Butch sounded impressed. "We didn't hear it."  
"Um." Brick began.

"Anyway, man." Butch shook his head. "Have you and Blossom ever, you know..." the four other teenagers in the kitchen leaned in to hear his answer.

"WE HAVE NOT!" Blossom screamed from the bedroom. "Ugh, I am NEVER drinking alcohol again!"

The six of them dissolved into laughter.


End file.
